Addressing Global Poverty in Model UN

The ability to think critically about global issues is an aptitude our boys need to possess in order to be good global citizens. Saint David's boys learn this in class, when they study how the past affects the present. Boys can also learn it through a new Model UN After School program led by sixth grade teacher Joe Shapiro.

Last week, boys in our Model UN After School program convened our first-ever mock General Assembly Conference on Eradicating Extreme Global Poverty.

The conference was based on one of the eight Millennium Development Goals that the United Nations actually set forth in 2000.

Participants in the mock General Assembly included "delegates" from Chile, Russia, the USA, Sweden, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo. To prepare for the conference, the boys wrote position papers on their country's views about foreign aid. During the conference they had to follow the rules of talking on the floor of the General Assembly and had to negotiate terms with each other.

At the end of the session, the delegates passed six resolutions. Among them: the US pledged to build 1,000 schools in Haiti, using Chilean copper for piping and powering them with Russian oil; and Chile led the creation of a UN Disaster Relief Fund.

This type of active project, which features intelligent debate and critical analysis of data and statistics, also develops boys' ability to effectively make and defend an argument and exposes them to the art of compromise and consensus-building--all worthy traits of good men.

Comments

OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Sixth Graders Meet with Dr. Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Carter Emmart with Saint David's Sixth Graders This past Friday, as part of our unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, sixth graders had the great honor to attend a private lecture given by Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at AMNH. Dr. Emmart told the boys about his passion for science along with an overview of the history of the Hayden Planetarium. He also gave the boys advice on how to take scientific information about the universe and compile it into an interesting and captivating show for an audience. The boys were able to see Dr. Emmart's original sketches, which helped create the Uniview program they are using to develop their presentations. The session provided our boys with an opportunity to learn how art and science come together in the planetarium, and to obtain expert advice on developing their own space shows from one of the creators of Uniview . You can learn more about Dr. Emmart's work and Univie...

Tales of a Good Man

"Sometime in the midst of all this, we became friends. And his story, and all its vast world passed into mine." --From the Introduction of Blood & Oil by Roxane Farmanfarmaian. "Stories are so important; they become traditions that tell about the good that often comes out of bad experiences..." So began Roxane Farmanfarmaian's fascinating talk Monday night at Saint David's Seventh Grade Father-Son Dinner. Dr. Farmanfarmaian, Affiliated Lecturer of Modern Middle East Studies at the Political and International Studies Department at Cambridge University, was introduced by her nephew, Saint David's seventh grader Cyrus '17. She spoke to the seventh grade boys and their fathers about what makes a "Good Man" through the prism of her book Blood & Oil : A Prince's Memoir of Iran from the Shah to the Ayatollah (Random House 2005), which she co-authored with her late father, Prince Manucher Farmanfarmaian. The memoir i...

Headmaster's Blog

Search This Blog